Saturday, January 10, 2009

a picture speaks 1000 words

I've been thinking a lot lately about photography. About how - when you blog is the center of your business - the emotional power of images plays such a huge role. Good photographs, good sets, good styling are so important.

They say a picture speaks 1000 words. I reckon 900 of those words are ones we make up in our own minds to form a story around the image. Look at any interiors photograph on Design*Sponge or The Design Files or Olivelse or Bloesem and think of all the assumptions you make about how the owners live, and how fantastic that life might be (even if it's not!). Sometimes the photos create a yearning to have a piece of that life, which we can do by buying or making something for ourselves. It can actually be quite manipulative, don't you think?

Anyway good photography is an area I really need to work on. Not to be manipulative as such, but so I can better convey the images & dreams I have in my head for my textiles. I'm slowly takings steps to work on this:

1) I bought myself a new camera! A Canon G10 (huge thanks to Marcel for getting it cheap for me!)

23 comments:

I think photographs on a blog are really important, although it can be a sort of subconscious important sometimes, something you only notice when they're awful. I must admit when I see really beautiful, luminous rooms in those design blogs I sort of wonder what lighting and Photoshopping has contributed! How cynical of me.

Blogger is really very picture unfriendly; as a newbie it's very difficult to figure out how to get your blog looking not too skinny, not too wide, but just right. One day I'll figure it out!

your photos look great! i have been worried about the same thing. i take my photos outside because of the lighting in my apartment. although, having to take them outside made me et creative in a way i wouldn't have had i been able to take them indoors. but, obviously taking them outside isn't always possible. so congrats on your new camera!

also, i'm glad you made the photos larger! it's a pet peeve of mine when people have the narrow journal & i can't see the pictures bigger.

on product photography: lighting is everything. unfortunately the majority of us don't have access to either a) professional flash kits or b) amazing lighting in our homes. i wish i did! i find my photos are so much nicer in summer because of the light.

but i know what you mean... it can be misleading... or not even that, but photos can be so selective and subjective. i do envy other people's lives through their photos, which is silly, i know! but i equally love and admire those blogs that show the mess and the reality of their lives and homes.

As a photographer I use a lot of of pictures on my blogs and completely understand where you're coming from. I think the wider format is a great, although I haven't minded how my work looks on a blog.

And I actually think your photos are pretty good. Your lighting is always great, very natural. So I say keep up the good work.

Another way to learn a lot, not only about a new camera but to get the juices going is to do a Project 365 (I blogged mine www.leiasproject365.blogspot.com) You take a photo everyday for a year. Its amazing how creative you get, specially at 10pm and you haven't done a picture yet.

I'm a fine art photographer, and when I see good photography on a blog, I feel the same as you - ready to leap into those photos and start living in that dream world! Your photos do that for me already, by the way. :) But if you want to perfect your camera skills, this website might help you as it's helped me: